EI - What Is It?

Have you ever wondered why people behave the way they do or perhaps more importantly, why you behave the way you do. This is a question that each and every one of us should be asking ourselves each day as we navigate the world, for the answers could be the key to opening our eyes to the undercurrents that shape our path within it.

Emotional Intelligence or EI is defined by reknowned psychologist Daniel Goleman as, 'the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and influence the emotions of others'. Humans are emotional creatures, and the decisions that we make each and every day are shaped by those emotions. You only have to reflect on the last time that you were in a moment of conflict to know that this is intuitively true. What was your initial instinct? What were the emotions that came to the surface? How did you initially react? Unless you are someone who has learned to understand and manage your emotions, the answer to that last question is likely with unfettered emotion.

Now I am not saying that emotions are the enemy here, in fact quite the contrary. Emotions are super powers that if harnessed correctly, can be the the fuel that drives us to achieve the most incredible things. They bring meaning to each of the moments of our lives and give us the power to form memories of those moments, which ultimately become the building blocks of who we are. Now, let's think for a moment. If our personality is formed and shaped by our emotionally driven memories and these in turn are created by how our emotions are applied to any given moment, then the importance of being able to influence our own emotions is fundamental to being in the driver's seat of our own life.

So, how do we do this? Well you might have guessed already, the answer is by tapping into our Emotional Intelligence. It is generally accepted that there are 4 distinct elements that combine to form what we call emotional intelligence. These are

• Self Awareness
• Self Management
• Social Awareness
• Relationship Management

We all possess each of these elements to varying degrees and call upon them everyday, whether we are conscious of it or not. In subsequent posts, we will explore each of these four elements in detail, with the aim of gaining an understanding of what they are in our own context and how we can begin to take control over each to start to harness our own, Emotional Intelligence.